Old Ways and New Ways in Cultural Fusion: Exploring the Yuanshan and Dalongdong Area on Foot

TEXT　Rick Charette

PHOTOS　VISION

The Yuanshan and Dalongdong area is spread out parallel to the south of the Keelung River in the city core's northwest, centered on the Taipei Metro's Yuanshan Station. Here you'll find a delightful mosaic of heritage religious centers of worship, a time-honored night market, traditional Taiwanese and international-cuisine eateries, and a sprawling leisure-plus-entertainment park with outdoor food court and shops, a weekend farmers' market, and a leading fine-arts museum.

Religious Sites

Walking west of MRT Yuanshan Station is a peregrination deep into Taipei's past. Dalongdong Baoan Temple and Taipei Confucius Temple were once the beating hearts of Dalongdong, a community spread out along the Keelung River.

Dalongdong Baoan Temple is one of the city's most ornate and busiest, recognized for its extraordinary decorative arts. Dedicated to the God of Medicine, temple construction began in 1804, replacing a shrine dating to 1742. This is a priceless work of art that has been recognized with national heritage protection status and a UNESCO Asia- Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The virtuoso wood and stone sculptures, paintings, and koji pottery have been created over different periods by Taiwan's greatest masters, making it a showcase gallery of religious art.

Dalongdong Baoan Temple 大龍峒保安宮

🚩61, Hami St., Datong Dist.

📞(02) 2595-1676

🔗baoan.org.tw

🕝6:00am-9:00pm

Diagonally across the street is Taipei Confucius Temple, built 1920s-1930s. Though magnificent in its own right, it is a world apart from Baoan Temple's visual gaiety – honoring the Great Sage's valuing of simplicity, its mien is appropriately austere. Modeled after the original Confucius Temple in Qufu, China, no stone lions guard the entrance, no inscriptions adorn columns, doors, or windows, and there's no image of Confucius, simply a memorial tablet. The site's 4D Theater introduces the temple and Confucian cultural spirit.

Taipei Confucius Temple 臺北孔廟

🚩275, Dalong St., Datong Dist.

📞(02) 2592-3934

🔗www.tctcc.taipei

🕝Tue-Sun 8:30am-9pm

Traditional Eats

Tasty options abound in the neighborhood. Tang Shan Po Retro Bistro is an adorable little eatery a short walk west of Dalong Street Night Market's north end.

It specializes in classic Taiwan style bento and side dishes, with a decor emulating homespun old-time diners. Fried meats are their specialty, declared right in their Chinese name. The pork is beloved for its crispy exterior and tender, flavorful meat.

Order at the street-facing window counter, and if eating in, enter the long and narrow diner-style eating area through the old-style wood door. You'll be entering yesteryear Taiwan: terrazzo floor, ceramic tiling, climbing halfway up the walls (for coolness/easier cleaning), vintage conical farmer's hats, and straw-woven raingear as wall adornments. The bestselling house bento options are the old-fashioned fried breaded pork strips and fried pork chop.

Tang Shan Po Retro Bistro 唐山婆古早味炸肉

🚩72, Jiuquan St., Datong Dist.

📞(02) 2599-7699

🕝Wed-Sun 11:15am-11:30pm; Mon 11:15am-9:00pm

Between Tang Shan Po and Dalong Street is Ice Cool, another Dalongdong culinary icon. If you're in Taiwan, you're likely here on a hot day, and this modern-décor eat-in shop is a specialist in traditional shaved-ice treats and tofu pudding, two islander treasured means to beating the subtropical heat.

Among the quintessential toppings available are sweetened adzuki and mung beans, tapioca pearls, grass jelly cubes, taro balls, pineapple, and hard/soft peanuts. Note, however, that when cool times come, there are also hot items available, notably the warming tofu pudding creations.

Ice Cool 二水三京

🚩66, Jiuquan St., Datong Dist.

📞(02) 2595-8048

🔗instagram.com/icecoolyummy

🕝Sun-Mon 11:00am-10:00pm

Step east from MRT Yuanshan Station and you're immediately in the Yuanshan Park Area of Taipei Expo Park, one of several contiguous areas used for the hugely attended Taipei International Flora Expo in 2010~2011. Inviting MAJI Square, covered by a high protective roof, is one of this city's precious places where you can eat and drink outdoors. In the Yuanshan Park Area's south sector, a food court is its centerpiece, surrounded by a bazaar-style selection of restaurants, shops, and vendor stalls, many housed in cargo containers and shed-like kiosks.

The square's MAJI Food & Deli is a select shop stuffed with myriad Taiwanese artisanal food and household products, many of which are great take-home gifts/souvenirs. As one suggestion, you can't go wrong with Taiwan's premium boutique mountain cultivated teas and coffees.

Among MAJI Square's most popular vendors are those offering diverse international cuisine, including Latin American dishes, alongside classic Taiwanese street food stalls, a local bagel shop, a prominent British-style pub, and two bars focused on craft beer.

Maji Square

🚩1, Yumen St., Zhongshan Dist.

📞(02) 2597-7112

🕝11:00am-9:00pm

Held outside the square each Sat/Sun, the daytime Taipei Expo Farmers Market (expofarmersmarket.gov.taipei) provides 120-plus booths run by small farms across Taiwan, emphasizing the agri-products unique to each region, from fresh produce to processed goods.

Fine Arts

In the contiguous Fine Arts Park Area to the east is the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), opened in 1983 as the island's first facility dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary artworks, its collection containing works starting from the early 20th century.

It sits on the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. The shape of the striking white-facade structure, seen from above, is the Chinese character 井, a form inspired by the traditional Chinese siheyuan, a residential complex centered on a courtyard with conjoined buildings on all four sides. The museum features four long, cylinder-shaped sections that intersect, creating promenade-style exhibition spaces.

With a mission to promote Taiwanese contemporary art and fostering international exchange, its key internationally renowned museum-organized happening – Taiwan's most prestigious art event – is the Taipei Biennial (taipeibiennial.org), overseen by international star curators. The 14th Taipei Biennial, themed Whispers on the Horizon, will run from November 1 to March 29 next year, featuring 33 newly commissioned works and site-specific installations across diverse mediums and styles.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum 臺北市立美術館

🚩181, Sec. 3, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist.

📞(02) 2595-7656

🔗www.tfam.museum

🕝Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:30pm (Sat till 8:30 pm)

Situated by the south entrance of the TFAM, Rolling Dough is a recently hatched offspring of Taiwan's acclaimed MUME Hospitality Group (MMHG), which operates multiple Michelin restaurants. The concept here is a specialty-coffee café where, in keeping with its location, the croissant is treated as a work of art (along with other artful pastries). The kitchen's master artist is a celebrated Swiss pastry chef. His croissant masterpieces are post-traditional, molded into cubes, cylinders, and spheres beyond the standard crescents. There are six flavor choices on the menu, including Pain au chocolat, Seasonal Fruit chausson, and Marguerita Chausson (savory pastry). Other flavors, such as the popular Pistachio, might be offered as well. A unique non-culinary treat at this immaculate-white space of floor-to-ceiling windows is the thrilling sight of airplanes flying very low overhead – Taipei Songshan Airport is just to the east.

© MMHG

ROLLING DOUGH

🔗instagram.com/rollingdough_tw

🕝Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:30pm

Bonami, also in the south entrance area, is another MMHG invention. Starring a Hong Kong-born chef who has worked in multiple Michelin-starred kitchens, this is a bistro serving French home-style dishes, but with a twist, classic French techniques refined with local-flavor tweaks, crafting works comfortingly familiar yet subtly refined. For example, the classic pâté de campagne is created with chicken liver, minced pork, and pork back fat. The labor-intensive, slow cooked pork head roll features crispy and crunchy pork skin, tongue, and ear, and is served with a side of perilla leaves.

© MMHG

"Bon ami" means "good friend" in French, and the stress here, with a nod to the TFAM's "shared-with-friends" exhibition-visit experiences: no set menus, instead dining groups customizing shared-repast choices based on group size and preferences. Currently, only dinner (multi-course meals) is available; lunch offerings (light meals such as pastas and sandwiches) are planned for the future.

BONAMI

📞(02) 2585-0161

🔗instagram.com/bonami_tw

🕝Tue-Sun 5:30pm-11:00pm

If you visit on a Saturday, you can continue your art appreciation after a nice dinner, as the museum is open until 8:30pm.

🍷Please drink responsibly.